Northern Exposure

Like your average American, I tend to fill my summer TV schedule with a lot of new shows. The thing is that I never seem to get particularly attached to them because I know as soon as the shows I have been paying attention to for a couple of seasons return with new episodes those will be what get the majority of my DVR space. (Sometimes that rule will apply even if I like one of the new shows better. After a couple of seasons worth of time has been invested you feel compelled to keep watching just to know how the bad show is going to end.) I can't be the only person who feels this way because network like Discovery and National Geographic have a tendency to air these shows in long marathon sessions on any given day, as if they know they'd better get people hooked while they can. But because I have no intention of making these shows appointment viewing once September rolls around my interest level in them never gets too high and I wander between them. A couple weeks ago I was fascinated with a marathon of the show "Airplane Repo" but I haven't watched an episode since. My newest obsession is with the show "Life Below Zero" on the National Geographic channel. The show follows people in four Alaskan towns, all of which are very close to or above the Arctic Circle and documents how they survive the harsh climate. It makes for interesting television but I gotta tell you, it won't do much for Alaska's tourism industry.

TV tends to pay attention to certain subjects in waves and right now is apparently Alaska's time in the spotlight. Beyond this show there are also two programs I know about which are just about people buying real estate up there, another about its State Troopers and at almost any time you can find a nature show which was filmed in Alaska. I can totally understand this wave of popularity because I admit to always being mildly fascinated by the state of Alaska. Because it is part of the United States but so far removed from the rest of the country and with so much uninhabitable territory there is something both mysterious and familiar about it at the same time. I really would like to visit there at some point in my life just to take in some of its untouched natural beauty but I am slightly worried I will travel all that way, get off the plane and be bored with the place in a couple of hours. Really, if I'm going to spend thousands of dollars to fly across the country wherever I am going had better be able to keep me entertained long enough to make the journey worth it. I just don't know if Alaska would pull that off for me considering I don't really like to fish or hunt, which this show would lead you to believe are the only things people up there know how to do. It certainly doesn't make it sound like there will be a lot of stimulating conversation going on.

Also, as near as I can tell, they wouldn't be all that thrilled about having me in the first place because every person on this show spends most of their time talking about how much they enjoy the freedom of being all by themselves. I can understand why people who may have been born in this area would want to stay because you can't control where you are raised and everyone has an engrained sense of pride about their hometown no matter how flawed the outside world may think it is (if nothing else that just strengthens their resolve to defend it. It's like a sibling - I can complain about them all day long but someone from outside my family says one bad word about them and they just became my lifelong enemy). But most of the people on this show are not natives - they looked at their lives and decided to just keep heading North until they ran out of real estate even though they know how good we have it in the rest of the country. Plus, at least once per show a person will look at the camera and wax poetically about how they don't have to live by society's rules in Alaska or how they just don't enjoy being around a lot of people, which makes it especially ironic that they would invite a film crew to record their every move, but also strengthens my theory that everyone on this show is on the run for some crime they committed in the lower 48 . At least, I would hope that is the case because if they aren't criminals they are at best giant douchebags.

It's that last bit that may ultimately be the reason I am so quick to drop this show for almost any other entertainment option. Everyone on this program is constantly patting themselves on the back for surviving any given day given how hard life is near the Arctic Circle. Look, I know it takes a lot to live in a place where the sun is only out for a few hours at a time in winter and the average temperatures on those days is about -10. They are totally on their own to provide food, water as well as power and if they get attacked by a wild animal they are own their own. Even the simplest tasks become much harder when the weather is against you and the nearest store is 50 miles by dogsled. But, here's the funny thing about all that - no one made these people move there. Even if they wanted to stay in Alaska they could have moved to one of the major cities and still lived pretty remotely. I simply have a real problem with people who create extra work for themselves and then nominate themselves for Sainthood because they accomplished all their additional tasks. So, either move to a place where it is easier to live or stop commenting on how hard the life you created for yourself is because I don't have sympathy for you, I just find it annoying and I can always find something else to watch. Sure, losing me as a viewer won't be too big of a blow to their ratings but if they drive enough people away this show will end up off the air and that would be really bad because bad shows tend to go for the shocking twist in the series finale and since this is Alaska I'm pretty much expecting that to mean a bear attack. Talk about making a killing in the ratings.